If you are one of the approximately 10 people who regularly read my blog and you have been waiting for bated breath for the latest installment for over two months….I’m really sorry. After my last post, I got busy, then I got sick, then I couldn’t find inspiration, then I got sad, and then I went back to America for a visit. Here’s the short version of what I did:
Castle Hunting
Sam (who has become my Peace Corps life partner) and I went to Kamyanets-Podilsky and Khotyn in October for a short vacation. We met up with four other PCVs while we were there, which was wonderful, and we also saw two castles (one in K-P and one in Khotyn), as well as one of the oldest universities in the country in Chernivtsi. Then we both got a horrible virus which took both of us out of commission for about 10 days and which probably helped both of us lose about two kilos.
Moving House
Just after we got back from out little vacation in southwestern Ukraine, I moved into my own apartment, which happens to be next door to the school where I work. While I did spend my first week or so living there quite sick, I afterwards began to love the freedom of living on my own. I cook what I want, eat what I want, listen to music and dance around the house, I do home workouts and don’t feel awkward, and if I want to spend hours knitting and binge-watching Netflix, it’s fine, because there’s nobody to talk to in my apartment anyway. And if I need someone to talk to, I can call one of my awesome PCV friends or my good Ukrainian friend, Oleg.
TEFL Things
In the meantime, I got my English clubs restarted for the school year, and I also helped administer/judge the English Olympiads that took place at my school in November. I now have four English clubs – one for kids 1st-4th grade, one for kids 5th-7th grade, and one for kids 8th-11th grade, plus my adult English club. At first my “little kids” English club was sparsely attended, but then one of my English teachers had the bright idea to invite the kids in the school daycare to come up for the club, so now it’s my most popular (and populous) club. My “middle kids” club is second in attendance, but it’s mostly just my 6th graders, plus the occasional 5th grader, who attend – which is perfectly fine, since they’re great kids. My “older kids” is usually just two 8th grade girls, though occasionally another of their friends comes along. They’re great girls too, and I enjoy spending time with them, but I do wish some of the 10th and 11th graders who came to my summer English clubs would start coming again. Sam and I also started a girls’ club at the university in Cherkasy. It’s called “I Am That Girl” and is meant to provide a safe, casual space for girls to talk about girl things – pressure to be beautiful and successful and still girly all at the same time; eating disorders; expectations from society versus expectations for yourself; etc. That club is always one of the highlights of my week.
The English Olympiad was pretty interesting. It’s like a geography bee – a big national contest, but this time testing students’ knowledge of English. It has reading, writing, listening and speaking components, and I helped with listening and speaking. For the listening, I read a text for each group of students (there were separate rooms for each grade, 8th-11th grades), and for speaking, I listened to students speak on a topic and prompted them when their answers were a bit lacking. There were maybe 27 different speaking topics, and the students drew 3 numbers (1-27; each number corresponded to a prompt), then picked the topic out of the three that they wanted to speak about. Some of the kids did a great job; some really did not. The judges had about 8 different categories to use to create an overall speaking score. The three kids from my school who were competing each placed for their age groups – two got 2nd place and one got 3rd.
Home for the Holidays
The most exciting part of the last couple months was the fact that I got to go home for Christmas and New Year’s. I bought my plane tickets back in October and began counting down the days until I would be reunited with my family. I adore my nephews and my niece more than anything or anyone, and being away from them is the worst part of Peace Corps. Plus, I hadn’t even met my newest nephew, Beckett, and I was dying to get my hands on some sweet, chubby, giggly baby goodness.
In the weeks leading up to my trip, I listened to Christmas music every day, both to put me in a good mood and to remind me that soon enough I would be home. I even started a little Christmas caroling club with a few of my sixth graders and taught them a few Christmas songs. We weren’t able to give a performance, unfortunately, because the day we were supposed to sing for the school, all but one of the kids were out sick with the flu. But it was a great way to spend time with my kids and do something I love.
Actually being home was wonderful. My sister and her twin boys met me at the airport, and there were lots of hugs and laughter (and a few tears), and then we went to her house and I met Beckett – and he immediately gave me the biggest smile. I was so happy. That evening we went to my parents’ house for more reunions and hugs and happiness – my dog was in shock that I was home and licked my face for several minutes straight (and panicked every time I went to the door). I ate a ton of food and drank lots of good wine. I brought presents from Ukraine for the whole family, and got presents from America in return. We went to church for the Christmas Eve service with the kids, and I met up with a few of my good friends and went out on New Year’s Eve. It was a wonderful trip, and even though it was short (10 days), it was enough to refresh me.
З Різдвом Христовим
Funnily enough, Christmas in Ukraine is actually on January 7th, so when I got back to Ukraine on January 3rd, I actually had another Christmas celebration to look forward to. I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d do for Ukrainian Christmas (since I moved out of my host family’s house, we haven’t been the best at communicating with each other), but I did get invited to my host family’s Christmas Eve dinner at their house. I brought the gifts I had brought them and a bottle of wine, and we talked and caught up with each other; the little kids competed for my attention; everyone enjoyed their gifts (I got some, too); and we waited up until midnight to see it turn to Christmas day. What’s more, it snowed all day Christmas Eve and all day Christmas day, so I got to enjoy a white Christmas for what may have been only the second time in my life. On Christmas day, little kids rang my doorbell and sang Christmas songs or said Christmas rhymes in exchange for candies (I was sadly unprepared for them and quickly ran out of candy).
All in all, it’s been a busy and interesting couple of months (and these were just the major points. I didn’t even mention the visits from my friends, the election, or visiting the museum in Cherkasy). Now that it’s a new year, though, I intend to get back on the horse and write more frequently.
Dreaming in Ukrainian 
I read your blog!! I was wondering where you were! Glad you are posting again 🙂
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I read and love your blog!
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